Will your step kids get your inheritance?

15 Nov 2023 · 1 min

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1:01

In this brief estate‑planning advisory, Jerry Taylor warns viewers that leaving an entire estate outright to a spouse can jeopardize the inheritance intended for their biological children, especially when stepchildren are involved. He recommends placing part of the estate into a trust instead of a lump‑sum bequest. The key decisions he outlines are (1) selecting a trustee—whether the surviving spouse or another party—and (2) defining the circumstances under which the spouse may receive distributions from the trust. He emphasizes that any remaining trust assets after the spouse’s death will pass to the speaker’s own children, while also noting that stepchildren can be provided for within the trust if desired. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action to contact him via the bio link for personalized assistance.

Chapters

If you're concerned that your stepchildren are going to get your inheritance and not your own children, here's what you can do. Don't leave a lump sum inheritance of everything in your estate to your spouse. If you do that, at your spouse's death, the money may make it to your kids or it may not. There's no guarantee. So instead of doing that, leave part of your estate in a trust. But there's two big decisions you've got to make. The first big decision is who's going to be the trustee of that trust? Yes, the trustee is legally bound to do what the trust says, but the trustee has a lot of power. So will it be your spouse or somebody else? Secondly, you'll have to decide under what circumstances your spouse can get distributions from that trust. And keep this in mind, whatever is left in that trust is going to be going to your kids at the death of your spouse. Now you can provide for your stepkids too if you like. Obviously, I'm not saying you shouldn't. But doing it this way will make certain that whatever is left in that trust on the date of your spouse's death will go to your kids. And for those of you out there that want to work with me, go to my bio link. And also,